AUTO HISTORY

Motor Illustrator: Gary Gretter

In the evening hours, a man drives a red station wagon with a boat mounted on its roof into a 24-hour garage for service. Inside a garage bay a mechanic works on the under carriage of a car on a lift.

Gary T. Gretter was born in Connecticut in 1936. His father was illustrator and cartoonist Clemens "Clem" Gretter. Gary graduated from Wilton Junior High in 1951 and from Staples High School (where he was a member of the yearbook art staff) in 1954.

By 1963, he was Assistant Art Editor, and by 1969 Art Editor of Outdoor Life. In the eighties and nineties, he was art director of Popular Mechanics and Sports and Field. While at the latter publication, he appeared in a 1986 advertisement for Hearst Corporation. In 2002, he was design consultant for American Angler.

Gretter designed and illustrated McClane's Game Fish of North America. He designed covers for The Orvis Guide to Outdoor Photography and A Field Guide to Fly Fishing. His illustrations have appeared in Drawing and Painting from Nature; American Illustration 3; and Hi-Performance Cars magazine.